


Stay the Night

by Swim2520



Series: 2020 Ace/Nancy Fall Drabblefest [8]
Category: Nancy Drew (TV 2019)
Genre: 2020 Ace/Nancy Fall Drabblefest, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26905300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swim2520/pseuds/Swim2520
Summary: She drove around Horseshoe Bay for awhile until she ended up near the bluffs. Nancy sat in her car there for a long time, attempting to remember all the breathing techniques that her mother—Kate—had taught her to help manage her anxiety when everything just got to be too much. None of them were working. She still felt like there was a heavy weight strapped to her chest, making it difficult to breathe. And her brain kept replaying the night’s events from the moment that she discovered her entire life had been built on a lie. Her hands were shaking—something that only happened when a panic attack was going from bad to worse. With trembling fingers, Nancy grabbed her phone and fumbled her way into her contacts where she clicked on the first name in her contacts.“Nancy? You okay?”Ace’s voice filled the car, and for a moment, Nancy felt calm. She could breathe a little easier and her hands shook a little less.“No,” she replied.Nancy is spiraling after discovering the truth of her heritage. She calls the one person that might be able to make things better for her. Ace.
Relationships: Ace & Nancy Drew, Ace/Nancy Drew
Series: 2020 Ace/Nancy Fall Drabblefest [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944706
Comments: 6
Kudos: 68





	Stay the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warning for panic attacks! If the description of which will trigger you, please don't read. 
> 
> In episode 1x13, the Whisper Box version of Kate Drew mentioned how Nancy struggled with anxiety as a kid, particularly anxiety about losing her. As someone who has anxiety, I can honestly say that losing someone who you were so scared to lose can be a trigger for anxiety and panic attacks. Adding more stressors to the equation makes it even more likely. And Season 1 gave Nancy a lot of stressors. We don't see it on screen, but it is highly likely that Nancy had a panic attack after discovering the truth about her parentage. 
> 
> Prompt: Nancy goes over to Ace’s place instead of Owen’s on the night she discovers her true identity and “I trust you more than anyone else in my entire life, Ace.”

Nancy stumbled out of her bedroom window, struggling for breath. She could hear her father still speaking through her bedroom door, but she ignored him as she made her way towards her car and drove away. To be honest, Nancy was unsure of how she managed to sneak out of her room so quietly in her current state, but it was just one of those things in life that she had learned not to question.

She drove around Horseshoe Bay for awhile until she ended up near the bluffs. Nancy sat in her car there for a long time, attempting to remember all the breathing techniques that her mother—Kate—had taught her to help manage her anxiety when everything just got to be too much. None of them were working. She still felt like there was a heavy weight strapped to her chest, making it difficult to breathe. And her brain kept replaying the night’s events from the moment that she discovered her entire life had been built on a lie. Her hands were shaking—something that only happened when a panic attack was going from bad to worse. With trembling fingers, Nancy grabbed her phone and fumbled her way into her contacts where she clicked on the first name in her contacts.

_“Nancy? You okay?”_

Ace’s voice filled the car, and for a moment, Nancy felt calm. She could breathe a little easier and her hands shook a little less.

“No,” she replied.

_“I’ll come get you. Where are you?”_

“The bluffs.”

_“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,_ ” Ace said. Even in her vulnerable state, Nancy could hear his voice shake from over the phone. Probably not her best decision to go to the bluffs—considering her newly revealed family history—but, once again, Nancy had not exactly been in the right state of mind.

“Ace?”

_“Yeah?”_ He asked.

“Can you stay on the phone please? Just keep talking.”

_“Yeah, of course.”_

Nancy wasn’t sure quite what Ace was talking about because she was a little bit too preoccupied trying to breathe and she was also focusing more on the _sound_ of his voice than any of the words said. Nancy wasn’t sure if he arrived when he said he would, but knowing Ace, he definitely did. Her car door opened and suddenly Ace was there. He spoke fast—too fast—and his hands ran up and down Nancy’s arms and shoulders. The roaring in her ears finally eased, at least enough to where she could hear Ace speak.

“Nancy. Nancy. Hey, you with me?”

“Ace?”

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m here.”

Nancy finally released the tears that had been burning at the back of her eyelids. She started sobbing as Ace wrapped her into his arms, ignoring the rapidly growing tear stains on his jacket. 

Once she started to calm down, Ace pulled away and looked her in the eye. “Do you want to get out of here?”

“Please don’t take me home.”

“I won’t. I promise, Nancy.“

She let Ace help her out of the drivers’ seat and into the passenger’s seat of his car. She heard Ace mutter something about how he would pick up her car in the morning before he shut her door and ran over to the driver’s seat. Just as he had on the phone, Ace spoke the entire time about everything and nothing—clearly avoiding the earthshattering truth they had learned that night. Nancy let the sound of his voice wash over her as he drove and rested her head against the window with her eyes closed.

When she opened them, Nancy immediately asked, “What are we doing here?”

“I figured you would need a place to crash for the night at least and Bess and George don’t know so...” Ace trailed off as she caught sight of the familiar front yard of Ace’s house.

She was thankful for how he chose not to include Nick—because he was obviously a no-go—or Owen. None of the others knew about Nancy’s real parentage except for Ace, which she was thankful for. And she really had no intention of telling them. Even in her emotional state, Nancy realized that there _was_ a reason for keeping the secret from the rest of the town, especially the Hudsons (she just did not understand why they didn’t tell _her_ ).

“Thank you, Ace.”

~Nancy Drew~

Up until Nancy called him in a panic saying that she was at the bluffs, the scariest moment in Ace’s life had been his father’s accident when he was a kid. He was worried that, in her grief and panic, Nancy had gone to the bluffs to end her life, just as her mother had done twenty years before. 

Those concerns were abated slightly once Ace realized that she had never left her car. She had still clearly been in the middle of a fairly serious panic attack as he arrived, but Nancy seemed to calm down slightly when he arrived. 

It was in the car that Ace decided that Nancy needed to spend the night with someone that she trusted. George wasn’t an option. She would ask questions and Ace didn’t want to hurt her by bringing by old, painful memories of her affair with Ryan-Nancy’s father. Nick _definitely_ wasn’t an option. Nancy had always kept him at arms-length, but especially so since they broke up. Being around Nick would only stress her out, which was the last thing that she needed. And Bess could not keep secrets very well, so she was out, too. The Hudsons had wanted Nancy dead before she was even born; Ace didn’t want to know what they would do if they discovered that she had survived for twenty years right under their noses. Ace would have taken her to Owen’s, but he knew that Nancy would have called him if she wanted to spend the night with him. 

The only person left was him. 

Ace wasn’t too worried. His father had met Nancy and, while he may not have always approved with her decisions, he liked her. He also knew that his mother would love Nancy. She would like that Ace felt challenged to be better around Nancy, to be smarter (as no one else ever had before).

They would definitely be asleep by the time that Ace got home with Nancy, but he knew that they would understand once he explained the situation (not all of it, of course; just the basics). 

Sneaking Nancy inside was fairly easy. Even exhausted from a panic attack, she was still more sneaky than most people. He led her upstairs to the guest room before heading towards his room to get a change of clothes for her. 

“Ace?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I stay with you tonight? I really don’t want to be alone.”

“Yeah. of course.” Ace was thankful that he had now passed the teenage years where his mother burst into his room every morning to wake him up.

“I’ll take the floor. You can take my bed.”

“Ace, that’s ridiculous. We can share.”

He swore that he felt his heart stop at just the idea of sharing a bed with Nancy, the girl that he had a crush on. 

“Are you sure?”

“I know you won’t do anything. I just need someone that I trust to stay with me tonight. I trust you more than anyone else in my entire life, Ace.”

“I trust you, too,” Ace replied. 

When they were both settled in bed, or as settled as Ace could get, he heard Nancy whisper, “Thank you.”

“Absolutely. I’ll always be there for you, Nancy. No matter what.”

It did not take long for either to collapse into exhaustion from the day’s events. And both slept better, wrapped in each other’s arms, than they ever had before. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so much for your continued love and support. I originally started writing these drabbles for fun, simply because I had never done anything like it before. It has been you loyal readers that have inspired me to keep writing these drabbles each and every day. I have a lot more ideas and I look forward to sharing them with you. Thanks for the kudos and comments! They mean the world!


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